With the rapid development of new mobile applications, and with the coming to market of the next generation of mobile devices, there is an increased need for provisioning systems for mobile applications. For purposes of clarity herein, mobile applications are software applications for use on mobile devices.
Typically, when using an over-the-air or internet option, mobile applications are available at the web sites of mobile service providers. For the mobile device user there are problems with such a system.
As an example, in order to compare and evaluate similar applications, the user must enter each web site of each mobile service provider separately. Additionally, if the user is a subscriber to a first mobile service provider, it is many times not possible to utilize a mobile application from a second mobile service provider. Furthermore, it is the user's responsibility to choose an application which is appropriate for the user's device, and in some instances, depending on the implementation, the user may need to install the application by himself.
Conversely, there are also problems from the independent mobile application provider point of view. When mobile applications are provided by mobile service providers, they are obviously published as options offered by that provider. As such, the back-office facilities, such as accounting, metering, subscription, etc., support the entire site, and subsequently, the back-office facilities for the offered mobile applications are bundled into the rest of the site.
If an independent application provider desires to offer his mobile application as one of the options of a selected mobile service provider, the independent application provider must enter into negations with the mobile service provider for all the back office facilities, or alternatively, he will need to implement for his uses a system that provides all the billing, accounting, logging, monitoring, authorization, etc. services.
Furthermore, the mobile application is only published in the specific website of the selected mobile provider, and in order to publish the mobile application at more sites, the independent application provider must enter into separate agreements with each mobile service provider.
An additionally difficulty for the mobile service provider is the inability to determine if a download operation has ended successfully. Due to the inability to know if the application has been fully downloaded, there may be users which are billed for applications they never received, or visa versa.
It is therefore desirable to find an alternative method for provisioning for mobile applications.
Moreover, currently there is no standard approach to locate and provision a mobile device with a mobile application. Accordingly it would be desirable to provide the ability to standardize the location and provision of mobile applications.